Aston Martin centenary celebration at Le Mans

Home to Aston Martin's factory race cars during every Le Mans 24 Hours week from 1952 to 1959, the Hotel de France in La Chartre-sur-Loir hosted a special champagne reception and luncheon the day before this year's race in honour of the marque's centenary.

Chosen as race HQ by Aston Martin's legendary team manager John Wyer, it was here, 30 miles south of Le Mans, that drivers, mechanics and wives/girlfriends stayed, and where the cars were fettled before they were driven to and from the race – provided they finished in one piece – before the whole team partied long into the night.

Organised by the Aston Martin Owners Club, the June 21 celebration marked not only 100 years since Bamford & Martin, which sired the first Aston Martin, was established, but also 90 years since the first Le Mans 24 Hours and 113 years since the Pasteau family opened the hotel, 23 years before welcoming the inaugural racegoers. Accordingly, apart from some 150 members and guests and the town square opposite exclusively filled with Aston Martins, the British marque was represented by chairman David Richards and CEO Dr Ulrich Bez, as well as Noel Pasteau, whose family still runs the hotel, and AM's chief designer, Marek Reichmann. Present also was one of two Aston Martin CC100 concept roadsters – centenary celebration models, the styling paying homage to Aston's 1959 Le Mans and World Sportscar Championship-winning DBR1 – parked in the hotel's courtyard where the works cars were kept and tended.

After Aston Martin's withdrawal from racing in 1963, Wyer continued to use the hotel (a pilgrimage since for Aston enthusiasts) as the base for the Gulf Oil-backed JW Automotive racing team, which he managed until 1975, where Ford GT40s, Porsche 917s and Mirage-Fords took over where the Astons left off. Following an amusing informative speech from then JWA purchasing manager Maitland Cook linking the two marques' histories at the hotel, as well as tales of the Aston team's laid-back, bon vivant approach – so very different to today, with the hotel's bar (now festooned with Le Mans memorabilia) open until 3am and one driver attending the drivers' briefing in his dressing gown – David Richards, also chairman of Aston Martin Racing, which is today sponsored by Gulf, spoke with guarded optimism (as it turned out, with tragically good reason) about the five V8 Vantage GTEs' prospects for the weekend's 24 Hours.

Ulrich Bez went on to describe the CC100 as reflecting Aston Martin's history and heritage with the future, as well as celebrating the biggest success in the marque's history, its 1959 race victories, by combining the DBR1's minimalism and purity with the V12 Vantage's chassis and running gear. More anecdotes and jollity followed from Le Mans veteran and period Aston driver Mike Salmon, before all were treated to the CC100 being revved up in the echoing confines of the courtyard where DB3s, DB3Ss and DBR1s had been fine-tuned back in the 1950s.